2005

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0392 Friday, 25 February 2005
[1] From: Jay Feldman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 24 Feb 2005 08:50:07 -1000
Subj: Re: SHK 16.0378 A Claudius Question
[2] From: Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 24 Feb 2005 14:12:04 -0800 (PST)
Subj: Re: SHK 16.0378 A Claudius Question
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jay Feldman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 24 Feb 2005 08:50:07 -1000
Subject: 16.0378 A Claudius Question
Comment: Re: SHK 16.0378 A Claudius Question
Abigail Quart: "Laertes makes a push to grab the throne of Denmark . . ."
I'm not so sure I agree. Given only the messenger's excited, perhaps
hysterical report of the crowd's call - "Laertes shall be king!" - one
might think so, but Laertes' command: "Sirs, stand you all without."
would seem to belie a desire to grab the throne. Turning to Claudius,
his focus is and continues to be the death of his father - " . . . Give
me my father [and] Where is my father?"
Jay Feldman
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 24 Feb 2005 14:12:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 16.0378 A Claudius Question
Comment: Re: SHK 16.0378 A Claudius Question
Abigail Quart writes, "Bill, Claudius usurped the throne from his
brother, not his nephew. What's clear in the play is that the king was
elected, not guaranteed by primogeniture."
What is *CLEAR* is that William Shakespeare wrote the play *Hamlet* and
in ACT I there is a spectral spirit who claim that Claudius murdered
Prince Hamlet's father and usurped the throne from his brother and his
nephew. Now, William Shakespeare had his reasons for ACT I, which seem
self-evident to me. Do you deny the existence of ACT I?
If there were no elective process Claudius would not have killed his
brother because primogeniture, as in England of the time of Shakespeare,
would have dubbed the rightful heir as Hamlet. Agreed?
Thus, Claudius murdered a lawful king, and married his brother's wife
who was a widow as a result of his murderous act, and was culpable in
the deaths of Polonius and Laertes and the madness of Ophelia, and tried
to murder Prince Hamlet, and you just seem to ignore all these embedded
facts and suggest Claudius is a nice guy. Why?
Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm
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